Only FOUR fines have been issued in nearly three years as a result of littering in Hitchin and the whole of North Herts new data has revealed.

With discarded rubbish strewn around public areas, blighting our town, litter is a scourge of Hitchin and our surrounding areas.

Despite a small recent litter pick filling seven bags - weighing a whopping 17 kilograms in total, meaning an average of around 2.4kgs per bag - an alarmingly low number of fixed penalty notices have been issued to prevent such anti-social behaviour in and around our town and nearby villages.

Previous litter-picking events which were extremely well-attended over the last few years in Hitchin saw nearly 100 black sacks filled from a dozen sites across our town - resulting in more than a [.B]quarter of a ton in rubbish collected.[.B]

Over the last few years wonderful, community-minded, hard-working volunteers have been busy swooping on parks, recreation grounds, streets, verges and rivers in and around Hitchin to help rid our town of this blight.

However, despite these busy events in past years, staggering statistics released from North Herts District Council have revealed only FOUR fixed penalty notices have been issued in nearly three years for littering.

For comparison, NHDC have been busy pursuing fly-tippers, with 21 fixed penalty notices and household waste duty of care fines handed out in the same time frame.

Twelve prosecution for fly-tipping have also been made since 2018 - but zero for littering.

North Herts District Council have been contacted for comment.

Read Hitchin Nub News for more on this issue.